, walked very erect for one of his Age, and his Eyes were the most quick
and piercing I ever beheld. Aristotle stooped much, and made use of a Staff. His
Visage was meager, his Hair lank and thin, and his Voice hollow. I soon
discovered, that both of them were perfect Strangers to the rest of the Company,
and had never seen or heard of them before. And I had a Whisper from a Ghost,
who shall be nameless, that these Commentators always kept in the most distant
Quarters from their Principals in the lower World, through a Consciousness of
Shame and Guilt, because they had so horribly misrepresented the Meaning of
those Authors to Posterity. I introduced Didymus and Eustathius to Homer, and
prevailed on him to treat them better than perhaps they deserved; for he soon
found they wanted a Genius to enter into the Spirit of a Poet. But Aristotle was
out of all Patience with the Account I gave him of Scotus and Ramus, as I
presented them to him; and he asked them whether the rest of the Tribe were as
great Dunces as themselves.
    I then desired the Governor to call up Descartes and Gassendi, with whom I
prevailed to explain their Systems to Aristotle. This great Philosopher freely
acknowledged his own Mistakes in Natural Philosophy, because he proceeded in
many things upon Conjecture, as all Men must do; and he found, that Gassendi,
who had made the Doctrine of Epicurus as palatable as he could, and the Vortices
of Descartes, were equally exploded. He predicted the same Fate to Attraction,
whereof the present Learned are such zealous Asserters. He said, that new
Systems of Nature were but new Fashions, which would vary in every Age; and even
those who pretend to demonstrate them from Mathematical Principles, would
flourish but a short Period of Time, and be out of Vogue when that was
determined.
    I spent five Days in conversing with many others of the antient Learned. I
saw most of the first Roman Emperors. I prevailed on the Governor to call up
Eliogabalus's Cooks to dress us a Dinner; but they could not shew us much of
their Skill, for want of Materials. A Helot of Agesilaus made us a Dish of
Spartan Broth, but I was not able to get down a second Spoonful.
    The two Gentlemen who conducted me to the Island were pressed by their
private Affairs to return in three Days, which I employed in seeing some of the
modern Dead, who had made the greatest Figure for two or three Hundred Years
past in our own and other Countries of Europe; and having been always a
